Saturday, December 14, 2019, Ed Sessa

Themeless Saturday Puzzle by Dr. Ed Sessa

Our retired M.D. makes another prescription of fun with this themeless puzzle. Here we see him with a very able and cute assistant.

If the good doctor carries a remedy for impatience, he could give me a scrip (see lightning bolt below on grid). When I saw - A _ D A, I filled in one crossword staple - AIDA, instead of another one - ALDA, without reading the clue or wondering about any place name MAITA. 

So I'll take dose of humility while lauding Ed's always pleasing construction and try to move on with my life with one bad cell.

No Blue Cross/Shield card required as we x-ray Dr. Ed's work:

Across:

1. Ring in one's ears?: CROP CIRCLE - Wow! Make room for this in my clue hall of fame. It turns out the rings are CROP CIRCLES and the ears are on cornstalks, not the sides of our heads!

11. Common dressage gait: TROT - A debate on this practice

15. It may offer dining options and a spa: RESORT AREA.

16. Tanning target: HIDE - Mom threatened to tan ours but never laid a hand on us

17. Imperfections affecting diamond clarity: INCLUSIONS.

18. '60s pop singer Sands: EVIE - All about Evie (Hey, you had to see that coming!)

19. Called to the shepherd: BAAED - Awww... 

20. Trial for a would-be atty.?: LSAT - A sample question from the Law School Admissions Test (Choose an answer and then click on Submit to get a detailed analysis)

21. One told to leave, maybe: PEST 

22. Camera choices: SLRS - I loved my Single Lens Reflex cameras but the iPhone is always with me so...

23. No longer is: WAS -My 24. Round number?: GIRTH WAS much larger two months ago than it IS now

25. Trig function: COTAN - If you really wonder what a COTANGENT is

27. Pickett's Charge charger: REB - Despite Longstreet's objections, Lee ordered  his REBS to attack across open ground against the strong Union position on Cemetery Ridge and many died

28. High in an irritating way: SHRILL - Gilbert Gotfried's SHRILL voice and real voice

32. Weak-kneed: TIMOROUS - An upscale adjective for TIMID

36. Sign that may have a dog silhouette on it: KEEP OFF THE GRASS - Oh...

38. "I hear ya": YEAH YEAH - That's why I had to put up the dog sign

39. Child's milestone: AGE TEN - You're a  big deal when you hit double figures

40. Future flounder: ROE - Fish eggs, of course

41. Mulligan, e.g.: RETRY - Uh, you can take a mulligan, Gary. Mulligan derivation

43. Fix: AMEND.

45. "__ little faster, please": GO A - Not the state of GOA in SW India today

46. Retinal cells: RODS - Sensors that see black and white while cones see colors 

50. Thorn in one's side: BANE - Some thought that Stella's puzzle last Saturday was this


51. Hawaiian staple: TARO - TARO root being pounded into poi with a basalt lava pestle 

53. Word from the Hebrew for "teaching": TORAH.

54. "Scientific American Frontiers" host: ALDA 

55. Tippling point?: ONE TOO MANY - AA tells it members that ONE is TOO MANY

57. Each cha in cha-cha-cha: STEP - 1, 2, CHA, CHA, CHA

58. Bad taste: INELEGANCE.

59. Lawman who was also a boxing referee: EARP - Wyatt lived in Pella, IA from 2 - 14-yrs-old

60. Green Hornet's great-uncle: LONE RANGER - Fun new info for me about Fran Striker who created both characters. The Lone Ranger's "real" name was John Reid and then later Fran invented a character who was a descendant - Britt Reid - who assumed the identity of The Green Hornet in more modern times.


Down:

1. Cheats, in a way: CRIBS - The use of CRIB meaning "to pilfer" dates to 1740. I remember cheat sheets being called CRIB sheets in my day

2. Nephric: RENAL - I know nephritis is a kidney disorder and RENAL is an adjective for kidney issues so...

3. Jazz pianist Peterson: OSCAR - Info on this Canadian Jazz artist

4. Flag bearers: POLES - A POLE carrying a POLE with the POLISH flag in the 2018 Olympic parade

5. Guck: CRUD  

6. "__ not my call": IT'S.

7. Upbraid: RAIL AT.

8. Start of a pedestrian caution: CROSS AT THE GREEN - I take issue with Dr. Sessa's preposition here. CROSS AT THE LIGHT maybe...

9. Dunham of "Girls": LENA - I've never seen her work but she is a veteran apologizer

10. __ Coast: EAST.

11. NYC landmark overlooking Central Park: THE PIERRE.

12. Inland navigator: RIVERBOAT.

13. Penner of praiseful poetry: ODIST.

14. Muscle: TEETH putting real TEETH in anti-texting/driving laws might decrease the 30. Tailgating danger: REAR ENDER this driver poses

23. Tom who coined "radical chic": WOLFE.

24. Like a drunken sailor, in more ways than one?: GROGGY - Gotta love those sailors who are GROGGY from drinking too much GROG

25. Laid it on thick: CLOYED - TV's best example

26. Med. research agency: NIH - National Institute of Health in Bethesda, MD

28. Overhead expanse: SKY.

29. Half a bray: HEE - HAW. 

31. Cell download, perhaps: IPHONE APP - My golf IPHONE APP

33. Ben Stiller's mom: MEARA - Ann MEARA and Jerry Stiller. Our Hawaiian blogger Chef Wendy lives a stone's throw from Ben on Kauai 

34. Purpose: USE - The Swiss Army site says this baby has 32 USES

35. Return ID: SSN.

37. Wide partner: FAR.

42. Emulate Galway: TOOTLE - Virtuoso flute player Sir James Galway is a first-rate TOOTLER

43. Denigrate: ABASE.

44. 122-square-mile republic: MALTA - A better and more methodical solver than yours truly would have seen MALTA to correct his single error of AIDA/ALDA

46. __ candle: ROMAN.

47. Bornean beast: ORANG - Breakfast with the ORANGATANS is an option in the Singapore Zoo. Is any animal's name mispronounced more often?

48. Hustle, say: DANCE - From Latin to Disco dancing. What? You don't remember how?

49. More 32-Across: SHYER - Shier works too

51. Considerable effort: TOIL.

52. Word on some headstones: ANNO - On buildings too. Can you compute the year "In The Year Of Our Lord" below to Arabic numbers?

53. Costume in some Shakespeare plays: TOGA - "What a deformed thief this fashion is."  (Borachio to Conrad. Much Ado About Nothing, act 3, sc.3, l.126-9.)

56. Key preposition: O'ER - Aha, Dr., you didn't fool me on Francis Scott Key's line about looking "OER the ramparts"

Dr. Ed seems to have provided a lovely remedy for the tough pill some felt had we had to swallow last Saturday